Friday, November 30, 2007

The Cascsade Eco Wool yarn that I ordered from a Washington knitting shop was backordered so I ordered some from JimmyBeansWool. I want the throw to be finished and blocked by December 18th. I immediately casted on with a J/1o crochet hook. I magic looped the first 9 rounds then switched to 2 circs. I had to sleep on it to understand how to knit and purl 9 stitches into a double yarn over. Instead of using BrooklynTweed's pattern in which the blocked diameter of the throw is about 4 feet, I'm using the Hemolock Ring KAL pattern that's on yahoo. I want my throw's diameter to be about 5 feet.

Harmony Needles

I'm using US 10.5 Harmony interchangable needles. I bought 2 sets of the 10.5 needles, 40 inch and 47 inch cables to try out. I'm going to have 600 plus stitches on the circs and I didn't want them to be crowded. When I knit lace, I have to constantly count stitches. I didn't want to miscount stitches because they're crowded.

Secret Pal Socks

These are the Apple Harvest Socks I knitted for my downstream secret pal. I used White Willow Market's superwash socks in the SnapDragon colorway. I hope she likes them. I hope they fit too. I used the foot circumference times my sock yrn gauge to get the right number of cast on stitches. The Apple Harvest socks made me see that a heel flap can be knitted in k1p1 with a continuation of the leg pattern. I'm understanding more about sock designing. I particularly like this photo because the hot pink in the yarn looks hot pink instead of orange. I've learned from reading Adrienne's interview of BrooklynTweed that the best light for taking photos is natural light. You'll be seeing better pictures from me.

First Toe Up SocksFor my next sock project, I'm making the Lace Rib socks from SNS. The sock yarn is Madeleine Tosh's Superwash in the Vermillion colorway. The socks are for a pal's who's birthday was in November. (Yeah I late again.) I wanted to try something new and try again to do short row heels. I'm going to use Kathleen Taylor's NoWrap Short Row Heel.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Thank you so much S!!!! My FIA spoiler sent me this package all the way from Germany! I was worried it was lost.... snail mail is so slow. :-( My spoiler is S of s-knitting. She's the knitter I talked about in a previous post that has the Orangina top I covet. I read her blog and through her I found Adrienne's blog.

S sent me Sweet Kiss(strawberry and cherry) tea, a bar of white magnolia soap, a skein of red Silkdream yarn, 2 skeins of cotton yarn, and the book, OneSkein. The book has knit and crochet patterns in it. I found an infant hat pattern I want to make for my littlest nephew. S sent me 2 soft, knitted washcloths. I really appreciate her doing that because cotton yarn is harder to get in Europe than it is in the US. :-) S also sent me some spice vanilla candles to go into the jack-o-lantern candle holder. The candler holder broke somewhere in transit. :-(

The package was well worth the wait because she sent me 2 bars of Milka Schokolade. It's rich, smooth and creamy delicious Austrian milk chocolate. My friends and I had it with coffee. Thank you again S :-)

That brings me to my answer for the Winter Coffee Swap Topic of the Week:

What is the ideal setting for enjoying the perfect cup of coffee? Who would be there - or would you be alone? Inside or out? Morning or night? With food or just the steaming cup of joe?

Sitting around after dinner talking and playing poker with my friends. I play Tx holdem poker with a group of friends. We usually have dinner around 7 pm then sit down and have a long poker playing session. We drink coffee that we get from Half Price Books.

I have received my last package from my wonderful SP 11 secret pal who's knitwear and accessories designer, KT! In a previous package, KT sent me the beautiful Sari Silk bag. She told me that the pattern was featured in the Summer 2007 edition of Black Purl Magazine. What she didn't tell me was that she was THE DESIGNER!!! I feel sooo special. :-)

A scarf for my roommate. My roomie is recovering from uterine cancer surgery and KT was nice enough to make her this scarf using her Mistaken Rumour Scarf pattern. The teal in scarf I'm going to use the pattern to make my lil brother the scarf he's been wanting me to make him.

Monday, November 19, 2007

A quick post.....The Thursday upcoming is Thanksgiving in the U.S., so let's all - American and not alike! - just share a post with what it is we're thankful for. A wonderful thing to do any time of year, I thought it'd be a nice thing to share for this week with the group!

I'm thankful for my family, friends, and the country I live in. I feel that I'm living a blessed life. God has shown me severals times that he's in my life and helped me through the rough spots.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and wonderful rest of the week. TTYL.... :-)

How long have you been knitting? Do you consider yourself beginner, intermediate, advanced? I've been knitting for a little over a year. I consider myself to be an advanced beginner because I can knit socks. I have so much more to learn.... sweaters, tops,cables, intarsia, steeking, lace knitting and knitted lace. I've decided in 2008 I'll learn more about lace knitting and knit my first top. I have the pattern for the Scarlet Woman tank top. I want to knit it plus a top I saw in Vogue Knitting Spring 2007.

How long have you been knitting socks? I've been knitting socks since January of this year. When I started knitting, my goal was to knit socks. I feel comfortable knitting basic socks. I want to try Jaywalkers, Loksins, lace sock patterns in SNS and MSNS, and Cookie A patterns.

What are your favorite fibers to work with? Wool and cotton. For socks I mostly use superwash merino wool because of the oops factor. If someone including myself accidently washes the socks, they won't be ruined.

What is your favorite color?purples, blues and reds

What are your current WIPs (works in progress)? A secret pair of socks for a swap, Forest Canopy Shawl(my 1st lace shawl), and My So Called Scarf for myself

What are some yarns/fibers that you stay away from. I don't like Red Heart yarn. I don't like cotton or cotton blends sock yarn. Possum yarn.... yuck

What is your family situation? (Married, kids, pets?) I'm single with no kids and no pets at this time.

Name some of your hobbies. Other than knitting, reading, cooking. I crochet a little. I want to start sewing again but need to buy a sewing machine. I need to reschedule my soapmaking class. I haven't found the time to do it. I took a beginner jewelry making class back in March. Maybe I'll make some stitchmarkers on day.

Name some of your favorite movies? Shawshank Redemption, Secret Window, The Green Mile

Do you like to read? Yes, I love to read. Since I've been knitting, I haven't read all that much.

Do you collect anything? Seashells, butterflies, knitting patterns and cooking recipes. I have 40GB on my hard drive. I used about 15 GB of which approximately 8-10 GB is patterns and recipes. I have the most up to date version of Acrobat Adobe. Most of my patterns are stored in either Adobe or Word documents. I have my patterns also stored in flash drives as a backup. I think in 2008 I'll start collecting knitting books. I don't collect yarn or have a yarn stash because I'm practical. Most of the time, I need to have a pattern picked out before I'll buy yarn for it.

Do you own an iPod or mp3 player? I have both.

What are your favorite type of knitting needles? Addi turbos. I recently bought Harmony needles (size US 10.5 interchangables) to make the Hemlock Ring Throw. They're so pretty. I want so much to like using them. If all goes well, I'll use them for lace knitting.

What knitting notion could you not live without? My darning needles. They're in a magnetic case I got as a free gift in a British knitting magazine.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Knitting Blogs:My SP11 hostess, Christine is having one more contest for our group. Yay!What do you need to do to enter? Easy! Just link me to a fresh, new, interesting knit/crochet blog. No YarnHarlot, Crazy Aunt Purl and others that everyone has heard of. I want new. That's it.

There are so many blogs I like. It was hard to choose. I ended up putting the names of my top 4 picks in a bowl and picking one. I chose Crimson Purl. My top 4 picks were:

Crimson Purl -I enjoy reading about her adventures. She's a knitting social butterfly. We share a couple of similarities. Her favorite colors are red and purple.She's knitting or has knit alot of the patterns I want to try. We both had a baby tooth that never fell out. She had braces put on to close the gap. I have a dental bridge that matches my other teeth.

LovinComfortKnits - She's an awesome lace knitter and a very nice person. Nichole of Lapdog Creations referred me to her when I had questions about blocking lace. I looked at her blog and had another one of my "I want to be able to do that" moments. Her shawls are so beautiful. Her Etain is gorgeous, simply gorgeous. I saw it and said out loud, " WOW!"

Real Life Live&Unscripted - She knits, sews, scrapbooks and is a photographer. I enjoy reading about her live. She's also a very nice person. I'd been blogstalking her for awhile and decided to delurk and post a comment. She was so touched by it she invited me over for cake. lol...... Ok...what really happened was, I delurked and posted a comment when Adrienne asked her readers to delurk. Instead of putting wildflower38 as my name, I put my real name, Cheryl, on the comment. Adrienne thought I was her neighbor, sent me an email and invited me over for cake.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

You appear to be a Knitting Adventurer. You are through those knitting growing pains and feeling more adventurous. You can follow a standard pattern if it's not too complicated and know where to go to get help. Maybe you've started to experiment with different fibers and you might be eyeing a book with a cool technique you've never tried. Perhaps you prefer to stick to other people's patterns but you are trying to challenge yourself more. Regardless of your preference, you are continually trying to grow as a knitter, and as well you should since your non-knitting friends are probably dropping some serious hints, these days.http://marniemaclean.comTake this quiz!

I think I'm a knitting adventurer because I like to make changes to the patterns I knit. I don't have a problem with ripping and starting over. Let me tell you about the Forest Canopy Shawl.

Last week I casted on the Forest Canopy Shawl. Actually, I casted on the shawl 3 times. The first time I used a provisional cast on(it's not needed for this pattern) because I didn't like my cast on edge of the Branching Out scarf. I thought it wasn't stretchy enough. Then I knitted the setup rows of the pattern. I hated how it looked and I ripped. The second time I casted on again using the provisional cast on and slipped the edge stitches of the setup rows. I hated how that looked too. The third time I casted on not modifying the pattern at all. I like how it looks and I've completed 3 pattern repeats. I like how it looks. I'm knitting the shawl with Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool Quarters in Ruby River colorway. The ruby river colorway has 2 shades of red(ones a true red and the other lighter pinkish red), brownish orange and 2 shade of maroon(maroon and a mauvey maroon) in it. I'm using the chart to knit it. I'm never used a chart before. It's so much easier than using the written instructions.

I finished the Branching Out scarf. Later on today, I'll go to Michaels to buy more pins so I can block it. Grace of LovinComfortKnits was kind enough to give me advice on how to block it.

Unblocked it's 39 inches long.

Sock News:I'm still knitting my secret project with the Snapdragon sock yarn. I'm not going to be done by Friday like I wanted. Pictures to come when the package is sent off.

I bought some more yarn.... sock yarn of course. It's Madeleine Tosh's Hand-dyed Superwash Merino wool sock yarn in vermillion. Its shades of pink and red.

Monday, November 12, 2007

As the cold of winter approaches, do you change the projects you work on? Do you work ongifts for others or do you continue working on projects for yourself?

I haven't changed the projects that I work on. I like socks and knit them whenever I get a chance to. I consider myself to be a sock knitter.... a slow one, but still a sock knitter. Last year I knitted most of the Christmas gifts (scarves) I gave out. This year I decided to have low stress Christmas so I'm only knitting one Christmas gift, the Hemlock Ring Throw for a special someone. If the yarn and needles ever get here I'll be able to start it. I live in Corpus Christi, Texas. It's considered the edge of the knitting world. I'm amazed that we have a real LYS here. Anyway, I'm only knitting one Christmas gift this year. Most of the time my knitting is for someone else. It makes me happy to knit an item for someone. I feel that when I knit and gift socks, a hat or something else for family or a friend I'm giving them a hug. I have a "to do" list of names of family and friends and projects that I keep. I like to give out knitting coupons. The coupon is my way to telling the giftee that they are on my list and I will definitely knit something for them. I put expiration dates on them. Usually the expiration date is a year from their birthday.

As for knitting for myself, I haven't done much of that. I knit the Branching Out Scarf for myself. I need to post a picture of it as soon as I block it. That's last thing that I knit for myself. Before that I knit myself some dishcloths. Up coming projects I want to do for myself are the Theolonius Socks, Mystic Waters Shawl, Scarlet Woman tank top, and Aveline Slouchy hat.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

My favorite swap hostess, Anne, is having a contest over on her site. She wants to know what are your favorite knit patterns. She looking for something to knit. Of course, I gave her few sock patterns I like. Tell her I sent you and I'll be entered into the drawing 3 times.

FlowersI don't understand why I'm not a daisy, bluebonnet or some other wildflower...

You Are A Lily

You are a nurturer and all around natural therapist.

People see you as their rock. And they are able to depend on you.

You are a soothing influence. You can make people feel better with a few words.

I do consider myself to be a loyal friend and I like making people laugh. Sometimes people don't get my jokes because I'm perceived as being a very serious person.

Book Meme

1. Hardcover or paperback, and why?

Paperback. It’s cheaper and easier to carry around.

2. If I were to own a book shop, I would call it…

Wee Hours. Sometimes when I’m reading a really good book, I won’t put it down and I’ll stay up all night reading it.

3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) is…

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. - Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be…

I cannot pick just one. My top 3 are Harper Lee, Toni Morrison and Alex Haley.

5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be…

The Stand (unabridged version) – Stephen King It’s the only 1000+ pages book that I’ve ever read that I never wanted it to end.

6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that…

Actually someone already invented it. A Ear light

7. The smell of an old book reminds me of…

Adventure, travel, excitement

8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be…

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

The new season of Project Runway starts next week on Wednesday. I'm so excited!!! I love the show. This season all the contestants are working designers. I think the "twist" will make the show better. I think that each design will already have their own "voice"... their own distinct style. Alot of the up and coming designers have suffered from not having their own unique style.... and couldn't come up with designs when challenge was to create a look that reflects their own style/voice. It's been over a year since the shows been on and I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

I've been watching Project Runway Canada on Spice TV. Check it out if you get a chance. Episode 5 was televised Monday night. It should be up on the site in a few days. I think MG's going to win it.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Seen on many knitting blogs, I thought I’d post it on mine. Here’s what I can do after 1 year of knitting. Maybe I’ll post it again next year to compare.

Mark with bold the things you have knit, with italics the ones you plan to knitsometime, and leave the rest. Of course, I added comments.

Afghan I see the Hemlock Ring Throw in my futureI-cordGarter stitchKnitting with metal wire ????Shawl Hopefully I'll start the Forest Canopy Shawl in a few weeksStockinette stitchSocks: top-downSocks: toe-up I found a short row heel tutorial that I like in 2008 I'll try toe-upsKnitting with camel yarnMittens: Cuff-upMittens: Tip-downHatKnitting with silk a fine strand with wool for socksMoebius band knittingParticipating in a KALSweaterDrop stitch patternsKnitting with recycled/secondhand yarnSlip stitch patternsKnitting with banana fiber yarnDomino knitting (=modular knitting)Twisted stitch patterns Knitting with bamboo yarnTwo end knitting maybeCharity knitting Knitting with soy yarnCardiganToy/doll clothingKnitting with circular needlesBaby itemsKnitting with your own handspun yarn If I can get that drop spindle rotatingSlippersGraffiti knittingContinental knittingDesigning knitted garments Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)Lace patternsPublishing a knitting bookScarfTeaching a child to knit SShhhhh Don't tell my lil brother lolAmerican/English knitting (as opposed to continental)Knitting to make moneyButtonholesKnitting with alpacaFair Isle knittingNorwegian knittingDying with plant colors Knitting items for a weddingHousehold items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circularsKnitting with someone else’s handspun yarnKnitting with dpns I know how to do it, I just don't like itHoliday related knittingTeaching a male how to knit Sshhh again don't tell my lil brotherBobblesKnitting for a living If only I couldKnitting with cottonKnitting smockingDying yarnSteeksKnitting art Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously On my 2008 to do listFulling/feltingKnitting with woolTextured knittingKitchener stitchPurses/bagsKnitting with beadsSwatchingLong Tail CO I need to learn the provisional and crochet cast onEntrelacKnitting and purling backwardsMachine knittingKnitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarnStuffed toysBaby itemsKnitting with cashmere (mmm, cashmere!)DarningJewelryKnitting with synthetic yarnWriting a pattern I want to get Barbara Walker's treasury booksGloves mittens are warmer!IntarsiaKnitting with linen Knitting for preemiesTubular COFreeform knittingShort rows I'm going to try toe-ups with Kathleen's no wrap short rowsCuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmersPillowsKnitting a pattern from an online knitting magazineRugKnitting on a loomThrummed knittingKnitting a gift I think that's all I doKnitting for petsShrug/bolero/ponchoHair accessoriesKnitting in publicKnitting with buffalo yarnKnitting with pygoraDyeing with food dye/drink mixesDyeing with chemical dyes (acid, etc)

I was looking at the wildflower pictures posted on Flickr and found a Pansy Cube. Luvmykatz created it using program found on Dumpr. She was kind enough to answer my email and give me the name of the site she used to create the Pansy Cube. She has swirls, Faberge eggs and alot of other beautiful pictures of flowers.

FO: Apple Harvest Socks

I finished the Apple Harvest Socks I knitted for my friend, S. Her favorite color is green so I hope she likes them. The socks were easy to knit and I'm making the sock pattern my "gotta make a female pair of socks quick pattern."

Sshhhh! It's a secret!!! Don't say anything but I'm making a pair of socks using this yarn for someone......

I'll post pictures at the end of the month. The yarn is White Willow Market's superwash supersoft fingering weight merino in the Snapdragon colorway. It's grapey purple and hot pink. In the picture the hot pink looks orangey.

I've started knitting the Branching Out Scarf again. I put it off to the side in September. I have about 10 more pattern repeats then I'll be done. I'm going to try to block it myself. After I finish it I'm going to try knitting the Forest Canopy Shawl with the Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool Quarters.

When did you first start drinking coffee? What age were you? Was it about the caffeine, or do you love the taste and smell? Tell us how your passion began!

I started drinking coffee when I was in MLT school (medical laboratory technology) in 1990. I was about 22 years old. I'm more of a tea drinker. Coffee gave me (and it still does) a stronger caffeine kick than tea that helped me study, concentrate, focus and stay alert. I discovered mocha frappaccinos earlier this year while I was on vacation. They are so good. Sometimes I have them for lunch on Sundays when I'm working.

About Me

“Maturity is: The ability to stick with a job until it's finished; The ability to do a job without being supervised; The ability to carry money without spending it; and The ability to bear an injustice without wanting to get even” A. Van Buren